This site appeals to me because my software engineer son in Austin cooks like you do. Before he made cookies at Christmas, he power-cleaned my KitchenAid until it looked brand-new. As a Catholic, I must chime in to refute the nonsense posted about why we eat fish on Fridays. The real reason, which goes back centuries, is to make a penance on the day Christ was crucified - Friday. Giving up the usual meat dinner leaves the family with the alternative of fasting (eating less than usual - giving up something good as compensation for our sins) or eating something else in place of meat ( chicken and broths made from meat or chicken are also out). Fish is an obvious non-meat choice. The fact that the Christian symbol from 2 millenia back is a stylized fish may indicate this penance has been going on for that long. Incidentally, this prohibition against meat on all Fridays is still in effect though in the past few decades the choice to eat meat and make another sort of penance on Fridays is possible. Practicing Catholics must still abstain from meat on all Fridays during Lent. Thanks for your efforts at exactitude. Nan

Upto about a year ago, Quiznos (the franchised sandwich shop) used to serve NE Clam chowder that was FANTASTIC. This was the only reason why I would visit the store for lunch, as the sandwiches were small and overpriced. Unfortunately, they stopped carrying the chowder but if anyone remembers the it like I did, please comment.

They're serving it again, in Utah at least, I second your comment. I used to eat there at least once a week. Finally the manager asked if I would Like a whole bag of it to take home, about a half gallon,10 bucks a bag.
I'm celebrating!

My ten year old daughter and I just finished making the chowder. We made it for the soup course at our Thanksgiving dinner. We are allowing a few days for the flavors to blend together. But even though it hasn't had time for the flavors to blend , we both agreed that it was of the best chowders we have ever tasted. Thanks so much for the outstanding recipe and making cooking easy for a dad to do!

Look I see it's been awhile since the last posting. After reading some of the comments I think people don't get it! This recipe is not about geographic location it's not about you, it's about sharing an idea of some ingredients that if perfected in your on way, can make some people really glad they had the time to share your meal! As with this site and as with you all, thank you for sharing even if it wasn't warrented. Silly people! Love the world hate your self! Go make some chowder and let us all know how it turned out!! Long Island N.Y.

I just used your recipe but was forced to make a modification which was a wonderful addition...I planned to make a double batch here at work and found out that our stock pot was missing. I had to split the batch and use a regular sauce pan. I took half of my batch and put it in a blender (before adding clams) and puree'd it. After the second batch was ready, I combined the puree with the regular batch and mixed well, adding the clams at the last....It was great. very creamy and tasty too...
Thanks for the recipe. All the best. R

Does anyone know why clam chowder is always served on Fridays? I imagine its probably a lent thing, but the practice is rather widespread so I was hoping someone out there might have another explanation.

The Catholic Church, as well as most of the various Orthodox Christian churches, still have prohibitions regarding meat on Fridays, as a sacrifice symbolic of that on Good Friday. Western Catholic tradition holds that its members from ages of at least 14-65 should abstain from eating "flesh or fowl" on Fridays. The Greek Orthodox church, if I recall correctly, asks its members to abstain from eating vertebrates.

This is for Fridays year round, not just in Lent.

Different conferences of bishops may redefine the specifics of the fast. For instance, the United States Council of Catholic Bishops decreed in the 50's that Catholics in the US must abstain from meat, or make some other penitential act.

Thus, few actually follow this directive today, but the custom still stands. The cafeteria at my workplace offers seafood dishes typically on Friday only.

If you don't want all that saturated fat in the cream, grab some diced potatoes and give them a ride in the blender with some milk. Makes the chowder nice and thick, but less fat. You could add a little cream or half & half to round it out.

You know? Who ever heard of using a rouix in a classic new england chowder anyway?

I hail from Maine, where the chowder is what keeps us going all winter long, and I must say cookbooks ALWAYS get maine chodwer wrong!

For the best results, boil your claims seperately, then shuck and clean them....

After, you use heavy cream and Maine Round White potatoes (Or california long whites if you can't get maine whites). The white potatoes are also called All-Purpose potatoes. They have a medium startch content.

Add your diced onions and taters (peeled or not, you're choice, I prefer them dirty) to the heavy cream, and some sugar to taste. (Yep, I said sugar). You don't want to bring this to a boil, instead it takes some active time to keep the temperature around 190 Degrees F.

It takes about an hour to simmer, at about 45 minutes, the cream will be quite thick, and the potatoes nearly done. So, add in your clams and then use the clam juice to thin out the cream.

In liue of Salt pork, we actually tend to use Bacon. You cut up as much bacon as you want in your chowder and let it cook with the potatoes etc.

Anyway, this is why resturaunt chowder sucks so much south of Maine....if you want the best chowder, make it yourself. Most resturaunts start with either canned clams or canned chowder, which tastes horribly bland.

You can then garnish it with cracked or freshly ground pepper corn, and a few sprigs of parsely.

This might be rather late in coming, but I just wanted to tell you that I made this chowder this afternoon and it was an instant hit with this Pacific Northwest beach community! Even the 6 year old and the 3 year old kids were hosing it down, and they'd never eaten clam chowder before.

While walking the dogs on the beach this morning at low tide I saw a few holes in the sand and started digging...came up with 8 rather large butter clams and took it from there. The only thing I did differently from the recipie was rendering actual bacon for the fat content and leaving it in the chowder.

MMM, MMM GOOD! Thanks for coming up with a great recipie! You have "Cooking Alaskan", "New York Times Cookbook", and "Joy of Cooking" chowder recipies beat all to heck.

Just found your site by accident and what an incredible accident it was!! Love the whole concept here and by golly the recipes work - they are very tasty. Its a very enjoyable read; both recipe and comments.

I will be back again soon for more great adventures into the land of cooking!